Entertainment
Climate change is a reality: Dia Mirza
New Delhi, Dec 8 (IANS) Actress Dia Mirza, who has been appointed UN Environment Programme’s Goodwill Ambassador for India, says climate change is a reality and the time to act on it is now.
“Climate change is a reality and we are experiencing this regularly within India — be it increased frequency and intensity of floods, droughts and forest fires. We are seeing a series of environmental degradation that is being experienced in form of air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution and all of this has an impact on human beings, health and our progress as a nation,” Dia told IANS.
“We hope to achieve goals in the near future in implementing policy and also ensuring advocacy reaches people to improve and change human behaviour. We need clean air, clean water and wildlife protection,” she added.
Dia, who is also the Wildlife Trust of India brand ambassador, took up the role as the United Nations brand ambassador to work on raising awareness and seeking solutions for environmental issues that the world, and India in particular, faces.
As a Goodwill Ambassador, the Bollywood actress will work with the UN to further spread the message on priority areas including clean air, clean seas, wildlife protection and climate change. She also attended UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi.
“Clean air is very important part of the work that we will do in India. Air pollution as we know has reached all time lows and ten of the most polluted cities in the world are in India.
“This has to be recognised as a serious health issue. I hope that the work we do in near future bring about serious change that will improve quality of air.”
On the film front, she will be seen in Sanjay Dutt biopic, which is being helmed by Rajkummar Hirani.
–IANS
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Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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